Gun Problems 



Suddenly the gun has sprung 

 into prominence. Here are a 



Luminous front and rear rifle 

 sights which enable a soldier 

 to aim accurately in the dark 



Fighting in the Dark with the Aid of 

 Rifle Night -Sights 



TWELVE hours do not make a working 

 day on the fighting fronts. Even 

 though the grist of the day's fighting has 

 been heavy, the belHgerents sometimes 

 battle far into the night. This they 

 are able to do with the aid of 

 rifles fitted with night-sights, 

 the invention of a British 

 artilleryman. 



The invention consists 

 of two spring clips which 

 can be quickly fastened 

 to the front and rear 

 sights of the British in- 

 fantry rifle. On the spring 

 clips are painted strips of 

 luminous paint which make 

 two rough sighting points by 

 which to direct the rifle. 



what is 



from the carbureter just below. 

 Pressing the trigger closes a 

 circuit in the battery line and 

 ignites the gas charge, driving 

 the bullet out through the spring 

 resistance and through the bar- 

 rel. The pressure of such a gas 

 charge is only about one-tenth of 

 necessary to drive even the little 



The firing pin is released by 

 pressure on a thumb-trigger 



A Gasoline Gun — It's Somewhat 

 Like an Automobile Motor 



THE French used to make a little gun 

 that threw its bullet by means of car- 

 bonic acid gas, stored in compressed form, in 

 a reservoir carried below the barrel. When 

 the trigger was pressed, a little valve ad- 

 mitted a quantity of the gas to the breech 

 end of the barrel and blew the bullet out. 



Now comes an inventor with a gaso- 

 line gun. Under the barrel is carried 

 a reservoir of gasoline, with a car- 

 bureter behind in the frame of the 

 arm. Batteries are supplied in the 

 stock. The bullet is loaded into the 

 barrel and kept from moving forward 

 by the resistance of a pair of springs. 

 A plunger at the back end of the 

 breech is used to furnish compression 

 to the gas charge delivered by ^ valve 



.22-caliber bullet from the ordinary rifle. 



Pulling the Trigger of the Gun 

 with the Thumb 



FROM the days of the matchlock, 

 when some ingenious gun designer ar- 

 ranged a little slip of steel 

 under the grip of the gun 

 by which the forefinger 

 released the glowing 

 match into the priming 

 powder of the gun, the 

 forefinger has been pulling 

 the trigger of a firearm. 

 One reason for this is that 

 when the gun is gripped 

 normally, the neces- 

 sary spring resistance in 

 the trigger is easiest over- 

 come by a light increase 

 in the grip of the upper parts of 

 the thumb and forefinger. 

 A Brooklyn inventor has 

 evolved a thumb-trigger bolt action rifle in 

 which the firing pin is released by pres- 

 sure on a thumb-trigger on the upper 

 part of the grip, instead of by the nor- 

 mal form of trigger below the grip. Also 

 he protects the thumb-trigger or plun- 

 ger on the upper side of the grip by an open 

 base peep-sight, mounted on the firing pin 

 in a form familiar to owners of bolt types. 



COMPRESSION CHAMBER 



The gasoline gun 

 — an attempt to 

 shoot a bullet by 

 means of a gas- 

 oline explosion 



t-CAR5UR£TtR. 



534 



